Russians' farewell to the late opposition politician and Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, which began on March 1 with his funeral, continued all weekend. Hundreds of mourners brought flowers to his grave at Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow, even though they had to wait in line for hours to do so.
Russians also took to social media to express their sorrow, anger, and even hope after Navalny's death at the age of 47 on February 16 in an Arctic prison. The circumstances of his death have not been clarified.
"The queue is huge. The cross is no longer visible on Aleksei's grave. A huge mound of flowers," one user wrote on Facebook.
"The police stand silently, clearly in shock. It feels like people want to cover Aleksei with flowers from pain, suffering, and injustice. I have never seen anything like this in my life."
Or as another person put it on X, formerly Twitter:
"Fact: People gave Navalny a presidential-level funeral. During the entire time of farewell to [Russian President Boris] Yeltsin, 25,000 people came. Just yesterday, and in just 1.5 hours, 16,500 people crossed the Brateyevsky Bridge! And the farewell continues for a second day!"
WATCH: Supporters continued to pay tribute to Navalny for a fourth straight day on March 4.
Another person wrote on X: "March 2, 4:55 p.m. Officially, there are 5 minutes before the cemetery closes, and people are walking without stopping. They go from 9 a.m. They go all day. They go to say goodbye."
Another user wrote on Facebook that she was buying flowers and when she said she was going to Navalny's grave, the woman "wrapped it, tied it with ribbons, I took two bouquets, and she said, "No money needed...."
Another mourner on X found room for hope:
"You know what I think. That he left behind a sea of love and caring. Now everything is filled with them. All conversations, all experiences, all texts, all chats and stories. I really want not to lose this love and compassion -- this is what he fought for.
"And I also think that he is of course pleased with all this love, but in general he is now a little mad and scolds us up there -- 'Yo, dudes, why are you so serious? You're scaring me. Let's do this already.' He always and everywhere joked, in situations in which I don’t even know how this is possible. He even joked with his Terminator at his own funeral.
"In general, I imagine him making fun of us there and somehow my soul feels warm, because I feel that even there he is alive and energetic. He didn’t die in hell. What nonsense. Here he is, everywhere and everywhere."
WATCH: Hundreds of people brought flowers to Navalny's grave on March 2, a day after his burial. Visitors included Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, and mother-in-law, Alla Abrosimova, who can be seen visiting the grave together at the beginning of this video.
Writer Viktor Shenderovich, a Kremlin critic who has left Russia, warned that the display of defiance would not go unnoticed by the Kremlin.
"Their attempt to cover up Navalny’s funeral failed, and the powerful demonstration of anger and grief that day made an impression, I assure you, not only on us," he wrote on Facebook.
"The obvious idea: Putin will take revenge for yesterday's humiliation. I don't risk giving advice; it just needs to be clearly understood."
Some bloggers saw the crowds who came to the cemetery as a sign that all is not lost for Russia.
"I tried to walk through, take pictures of the line, and realized that there was no end to it. They stood behind the barriers, and along the fence, and on the other side of the street, and around the temple, and further, and were already spreading into the nearest courtyards. There were people of all ages there; some were brought in wheelchairs, others were carried by the arms," one blogger wrote on Facebook.
"We didn't reach the cemetery. Everything there was blocked off, and already from the bridge one could see a huge crowd with flowers, into which we joined. A group of security forces was also 'relocated' there. People asked them if they would even let them put flowers? They were answered: 'You see that there are tens of thousands of you here. How can you all be allowed into the cemetery if you have occupied the entire street? It’s your own fault that there are so many of you.'
"This 'It's your own fault' made us laugh. Really....
"Yes, we were not allowed to say goodbye to Aleksei Navalny in a human way, but after the start of this war and the establishment of the police regime, this was a real breakthrough into the future, and Aleksei Navalny organized it. He could do it before, and he could do it now. A low bow to his mother, Lyudmila Ivanovna Navalnaya. Thank you, Aleksei, for staying with us! Heroes don't die!"
Another blogger described what the scenes at the cemetery meant to her:
"All these people on snowdrifts in a residential area, a kilometer-long queue, flowers and tears. Very different faces. I didn’t recognize them; I didn't meet many people I knew at all. These were precisely the people of a large country (in the best sense of the word).
"And I once again formulated for myself why I am not leaving and will not leave. I don't live in Putin's Russia, I live in Navalny's Russia, which one way or another, sometimes very imperceptibly, as if quietly, but still opposes Putin's Russia. And I want Navalny's Russia to win, which means I can't abandon it...."
Others saw no signs of hope, just empty words:
"A new outburst of 'they are afraid of us'...
"God, God...
"Why should they be afraid of us?
"Why are we dangerous to them?
"Are there so many of us and are we really capable of anything?
"Let's honestly tell ourselves that there are very few of us and we can only wave our ducks," one user wrote on Facebook.
"Everyone who thinks that Putin, cursed be his name, and his organized crime group is afraid of us, do not understand one simple thing: They do not see us as people; we are material for them.
"They know very well that there are very few of us, and that we are not capable of anything -- well, at most shouting, 'Putin is a killer.' It irritates them about the same as fleas irritate a dog and nothing more.
"For them to begin to fear us, we must earn it, but we have not done anything for this yet. For them to start being afraid of us, we don't need to wave ribbons, but something more serious."
